The design of bed bases and their accompanying drawers has necessarily in the past involved rather massive structures, often using two inch by ten inch boards interconnected by metal latches and conventional fixed drawers. The net result has been that the bed base often has weighed one hundred pounds or more, and presents a serious logistic problem in the storage, shipment and assembly. It is advantageous for water bed manufacturers and retailers that the bed bag or bladder is easily folded into a small package but the frame itself presents a massive structure of substantial weight which must be shipped and stored.
As an additional problem, beds are commonly sold in one of three sizes, namely a large single bed, a queen size and a king size.
Various attempts have been made to produce modular furniture using removable corners and hinges. Some of these are shown in the following patents:
______________________________________ Assembled furniture 4,003,535 Jan. 8, 1977 Tianchon 4,169,639 Oct. 2, 1979 C. Zola 3,695,702 Oct. 3, 1972 J. F. Ingellis 3,545,625 Dec. 8, 1970 D. G. MacMillan 4,067,161 Jan. 10, 1978 E. G. Rensch 4,066,370 Jan. 3, 1978 P. Van Driessche 3,730,601 May 1, 1973 E. L. Misenheimer 4,600,252 July 15, 1986 S. C. Barber 3,661,434 May 9, 1972 R. Aloster Hinges Swiss 603,975 French 1,517,445 4,563,381 Jan. 7, 1986 R. J. Woodland 4,089,467 May 16, 1978 J. M. Makowicki 3,527,283 Sept. 8, 1970 R. R. Butler 3,092,870 June 11, 1963 A. R. Baer Corners 3,865,051 Feb. 11, 1975 Johl et al 4,032,242 June 28, 1977 M. O. Morris 3,415,406 Dec. 10, 1978 Habgood et al 3,399,912 Sept. 3, 1968 P. Maspero 3,810,341 May 14, 1974 H. Holz 3,638,803 Feb. 1, 1972 D. C. MacMillan 3,981,251 Sept. 21, 1976 Damberg et al 3,856,147 Dec. 24, 1974 G. Piretti 3,822,924 July 9, 1974 D. A. Lust ______________________________________
We have found that the massive bases heretofore considered essential are unnecessary and the compressive stress of wood structure, properly designed, will support a bed of either the single, queen, or king size and may be disassembled into a small package for storage and shipment.
We have also found that with the use of interchangeable pieces, one bed base will fit any of the various sizes of beds. Therefore, a single bed frame may be manufactured, stored, sold and later converted by the ultimate purchaser to the appropriate size. Likewise, if a change of size is desired, the user may make the change without the use of any tools.
We have also found that one of the difficulties of selling any disassemble furniture in the case goods category is that drawers, by their very nature, are not normally disassemblable. We have determined that it is possible to make a drawer assembly which is capable of being shipped and stored totally flat and later easily assembled by the user without tools.